''Afropone'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

ant Ants are Eusociality, eusocial insects of the Family (biology), family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the Taxonomy (biology), order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from Vespoidea, vespoid wasp ancestors in the Cre ...

in the formicid subfamily

Ponerinae Ponerinae, the ponerine ants, is a subfamily of ants in the Poneromorph subfamilies group, with about 1,600 species in 47 extant genera, including '' Dinoponera gigantea'' - one of the world's largest species of ant. Mated workers have replac ...

, and is currently unplaced in any of the tribes of that subfamily. The genus contains two described species, ''Afropone oculata'' and ''Afropone (?) orapa''. ''Afropone'' is known from a group of

Upper Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cret ...

fossils, which were found at

Orapa Orapa is a town located in the Central District of Botswana. It is the site of the Orapa diamond mine, the largest diamond-producing mine in the world, and is considered to be the diamond capital of the country. Nearby is another kimberlite ...

in the Central District of

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

History and classification

''Afropone oculata'' was described from two fossils, the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

specimen number BP/2/28072a/2, identified as a female, and an additional poorly preserved

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

, number BP/2/26631-17. ''Afropone (?) orapa'' was based on a single holotype male, specimen BP/2/26628/1, and tentatively placed into the genus based on overall morphology. The specimens are mostly complete with variation in the quantity of detail, and are preserved as compression fossils in shale. The shales and mudstones of the Orapa site were rapidly deposited in a

crater lake Crater Lake ( Klamath: ) is a volcanic crater lake in south-central Oregon in the Western United States. It is the main feature of Crater Lake National Park and is a tourist attraction for its deep blue color and water clarity. T ...

formed as the result of a large volcanic eruption in the Cretaceous. The sediment originated as an epiclastic

kimberlite Kimberlite is an igneous rock and a rare variant of peridotite. It is most commonly known as the main host matrix for diamonds. It is named after the town of Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley in South Africa, where the discovery of an 83.5-Car ...

and derives from rapid weathering and decomposition of the sides of the kimberlite crater. Of the four major sedimentation types that have been observe at Orapa, fossils are found in only two, the granular mass flows and the fine-grained sediments: woody debris fossils are found in the granular mass flows, but well-preserved fossils are only recovered in the fine-grained sediments. The fossil-bearing stratum was uncovered during mining of the underlying diamond-bearing rocks at the site.

Radiometric dating Radiometric dating, radioactive dating or radioisotope dating is a technique which is used to Chronological dating, date materials such as Rock (geology), rocks or carbon, in which trace radioactive impurity, impurities were selectively incorporat ...

of the kimberlite pipe reported in 1977 gave an age in the general range of . Further dating utilizing zircon crystals reported on in 2004 gave more defined age of approximately placing the date in the Turonian age of the late Cretaceous. The fossils were first studied by Russian paleontologists Gennady M. Dlussky and

Alexandr Rasnitsyn Alexandr Pavlovich Rasnitsyn () is a Russian entomologist, expert in palaeoentomology, and Honored Scientist of the Russian Federation (2001). His scientific interests are centered on the palaeontology, phylogeny, and taxonomy of hymenopteran ins ...

with South African

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Denis Brothers. Their 2004

type description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differ ...

of the new genus and species were published in the journal '' Insect Systematics and Evolution''. The genus name ''Afropone'' is a combination of Africa, where the fossil was found, and ''

Ponera ''Ponera'' is a genus of ponerine ants. The name is the Latinized form (') of the Ancient Greek ' (, 'wicked, wretched'). Description Workers are very small to small in size (1–4 mm); queen are similar to workers but winged. This genus ...

'', the type species of the subfamily Ponerinae. The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

''oculata'', a derivation of the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

word ''oculus'' meaning ''eye'' is a reference to the large eyes of the species. The specific epithet ''orapa'' is derived from the fossil locality name.

Description

The eyes of ''Afropone'' species are large and well developed placed in the front portion of the head capsule in ''A. oculata'' females, and in the rear portion of the head capsule in ''A. (?) orapa'' males. Based on the preserved areas of known fossils, the mandibles of both species are short and rounded, without a distinct masticatory margin. Females of ''A. oculata'' are elongate being approximately long and have eyes which are 2.5 times as long as they are wide. The fore wings are narrow and 4.5 times longer than their width. As with other portions of the body both the mesosoma and petiole regions are narrowed. ''A. (?) orapa'' is smaller than ''A. oculata'' with a total body length of approximately . Overall the antennae are filiform and are composed of flagellomeres that are twice as long as wide. The scape at the base of each is generally short.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15621678 Late Cretaceous insects Fossil taxa described in 2004 Prehistoric insects of Africa Ponerinae Fossil ant genera